This is a group for musiclovers, especially Early Music. Join us if you want to combine your professional network with your passion for music. Together we can build our own weblog as a knowledge base, grounded in our sharing interest for Early Music. We can enjoy eachother by sharing thoughts, literature, musicvideos and ideas. This blog is a combined weblog; you 'll find posts in English as well as in Dutch.

28/06/2008

Verrukkelijke Barokmuziek; schitterend!
Johann Georg Pisendel - 1687-1755
This German Baroque musician and composer, who has been ignored, was a remarkable individual. Pisendel was one of the leading violinists for the Dresden Court Orchestra. His devotion to carry on his musical and performance duties is certainly a trait to be admired.
It's worth mentioning that Pisendel took lessons and studied with Antonio Vivaldi during his stay in Venice during 1716-1717. The two musicians developed a profound relationship which went beyond than the typical Teacher-Student acquaintance. Pisendel was allowed to copy several works directly from Vivaldi and even received some original manuscripts as presents directly from the Italia n master. Pisendel did not take advantage of Vivaldi's works but rather made sure that these works were secured with pride in the repertory of the court orchestra. Vivaldi went even as far as composing works dedicated to Pisendel. But Vivaldi was not the only composer with whom Pisendel came into close contact. J.S. Bach, Telemann and Albinoni also dedicated works to Pisendel as well, at the same time these co mposers admired Pisendel for his success as an orchestral director. It was said that the precision with which Pisendel worked was remarkable. Before a new musical piece was to be performed, Pisendel would go through every orchestral part adding detailed expression marks.
It seems to me, therefore, that Pisendel was a man who possessed tremendous characteristics as a musician and as a human being. His commitment and dedication to his orchestral duties were definitely something to take note of. Consequently, prominent Baroque composers such as Vi valdi, Bach and Telemann had solid reasons to admire and to enter into close relationship with this outstanding German Baroque composer.

Beatriz, Countess of Dia (12th C.) (France) allows us a unique personal perspective of a world ruled by a rigid code of courtly love. The text for this song is outside the male, more formal, esthetic of courtly love because of its directness, immediacy and personal viewpoint. The Countess, wife of Guilhèm de Poitiers, lived in southern France in the 12th century, a period favorable for the economic independence of aristocratic women. The legal system in southern France allowed women to inherit property. They often ruled their family estates while their husbands were away fighting in the crusades, freedoms that were gradually whittled away in later centuries. Although this was an era when poetry and music by women flourished, there are only 23 surviving poems by women and only four melodies. We are fortunate to have the both the melody and poetic text for the Countess of Dia's song, one of only two extant melodies of its kind surviving from the 12th century. Countess de Dia

Francesco Maria Veracini was born on February 1st, 1690 in Florence, Italy and d died on October 31st 1768 in Florence. This Italian composer and violinist, who was a rising star among the Baroque musicians. Even though Veracini was a skillful violinist, at least half of his work s were intended for the voice. Among his four operas are at least nine Oratorios, three pieces for church music , a number of cantatas and songs. Therefore one cannot assume his virtuosity limited potential vocal works, which indicates that Veracini was not inexperienced in vocal music. Veracini was a man who followed his own independence. It is believed that his independent character led him to acquire a bad reputation among some musicians. Did his comtemporaries see Veracini's independence and rapid success as a threat to their economical stability?

12/06/2008

Cantata 21 "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" ("I had much grief"): One of the great ones. The work falls into two large parts, reflecting the two main moods of most of the texts: the soul is overcome with sorrow, which transforms into joy because of God's grace. The opening sinfonia, slow and solemn, features a wonderfully expressive oboe soloist, (I assume) Marcel Ponseele, who puts out a long, intense line. The following chorus – ("I had much grief in my heart; but Your consolations restore my soul") begins with one of Bach's expressive wallops – three broken repetitions of the word "I" ("ich"), as if the persona were so afflicted with sorrows he had trouble even telling them. As one can see, the text splits neatly into two parts, and Bach creates two sections: the first, continuing the mood of the sinfonia; the second, much quicker. Both pivot about the word "aber" ("but"). Bach, in yet another brilliant stroke, brings all movement to a halt by having the full choir declaim each syllable on a long note. In both cases, Koopman lets the brilliant word-painting go by. The moments are matter-of-fact. The pivot is an emotional pivot as well, which we can see in the text, but Koopman's choir continues rather po'-faced in the second part, with the same emotional affect as the first.

A heartbreaking soprano aria follows – "Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not" ("Sighs, tears, care, distress"), in which the soloist tells of sickness of soul. The oboe soloist here surpasses even his work in the Sinfonia. I was about to write that Barbara Schlick, the soprano, delivers a lesson to other singers, but that sounds way too dry. Her voice isn't a large one or particularly pretty, but the beauty she gets lies outside the reach of most vocalists. It reminds me a bit of Elly Ameling. She has an extremely flexible line: she seems capable of anything, any dynamic, any degree of emphasis at any moment without losing the forward impulse of the music. The dissonances in her part (for the technically-minded, the suspensions) receive different amounts of emphases, and the meaning of the text at that moment determines the stress. Her handling of ornament is both various and alive to the moment. She lets the listener know that ornament isn't simply a vocal hoop for the singer to jump through, but an expressive device. (read more)

History: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the very best time) BWV 106 also known as "Actus tragicus" is a sacred cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is primarily intended to be played at funerals. The work is one the earliest Bach Cantatas. It was probably composed in 1708 in Mühlhausen possibly as a cantata for the funeral of Mayor Strecker.Text: The textconsists of different Bible verses of the Old and New Testament, as well as individual verses of old church songs of Martin Luther and Adam Reusner, which refer all together to the finiteness and dying. There are two disntict parts to the cantata: the view of the Old Testament on death shown in the first part is confronted by the second part, representing the view of the New Testament; the separation of the old by the new determines the symmetrical structure of the cantata.Voices and Instrumentation: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass; 2 alto recorders, 2 viola da gambas and basso continuo.Characteristics: Bach was probably only 22 years old when he composed the opening sonatina, in which two obbligato alto recorders mournfully echo each other over a sonorous background of viola da gambas and continuo. The cantata ranks among his most important works. Inspired directly by its biblical text, it exhibits a great depth and intensity. Alfred Dürr[1] called the cantata "a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve ... The Actus Tragicus belongs to the great musical literature of the world".link

18/05/2008

Guillaume de Machaut was a French poet and the most accomplished and versatile composer of the 14th century. A member of the household of King John of Bohemia from 1323, Machaut later became a canon of Reims, where he resided from 1340 until his death. As a young man he accompanied the king on military expeditions and developed a distinct fondness for falconry, horseback riding, and adventure. The richness and diversity of his experiences served him in good stead when he wrote his numerous and expansive collections of poetry, many of which were graced with musical compositions. His later patrons included the king's daughter, Bonne of Luxembourg, Charles of Navarre, and King Charles V of France. Several of the richly illuminated manuscripts of his works were prepared under his close supervision for the benefit of noble and royal protectors.Machaut's short, gemlike lyrics helped establish the rondeaux, ballade, and virelai, poetic forms that prevailed for more than a century. Nearly all the virelais he set to music are monophonic (set to a single line of melody). His graceful polyphonic (multivoice) ballades and rondeaux also set European secular song style for the next century: a high, sung melody accompanied by two lower instrumental parts. Of his 23 motets, 6 are to liturgical Latin texts and 17 to secular French texts. They are in three parts, with complex rhythmic and interwoven melody textures. Structurally, they are isorhythmic, or based on long underlying melodic and rhythmic cycles. His four-part Messe de Notre Dame is the earliest known polyphonic setting of the mass by a single composer. Also isorhythmic, it is monumental and austere, with driving rhythms and clashing dissonances. His musical works include 19 lais, 4 of which are polyphonic; 42 ballades ranging from one to four voices; 21 rondeaux; and 33 virelais.Link

17/05/2008

Philosophy, Music and Emotion explores two contentious issues in contemporary philosophy: the nature of music's power to express emotion, and the nature of emotion itself. It shows how closely the two are related and provides a radically new account of what it means to say that music "expresses emotion." Geoffrey Madell maintains that most current accounts of musical expressiveness are fundamentally misguided. He attributes this fact to the influence of a famous argument of the nineteenth-century critic Hanslick, and also to the dominant "cognitivist" approach to the nature of emotion, which sees the essence of emotion to be the entertaining of evaluative judgments and beliefs. This book argues that the cognitivist account of the nature of emotion is false and should be replaced with a conception of emotions as states of feeling. Central to this bold analysis is a new account of two closely connected mental states, desire and pleasure, and their role in human motivation. About the Author: Geoffrey Madell is Honorary Faculty Fellow in the department of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

16/05/2008

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741),[1] nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"), was a Venetian priest and Baroque music composer, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist; he was born and raised in the Republic of Venice. The Four Seasons, a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular Baroque piece. Read more...

14/05/2008

The first great madrigalist is Philippe Verdelot, a French composer. A look at his production shows a wide spectrum of literary interests and a remarkable ability to give musical form to the structure as well as the content of a great variety of poems. Verdelot's style balances homophonic with imitative textures, rarely using word-painting.The first book of madrigals labeled as such was the Madrigali de diversi musici: libro primo de la Serena of Philippe Verdelot, published in 1530 in Rome. Verdelot, had written the pieces in the late 1520s, while he lived in Florence. He included music by both Sebastiano and Costanzo Festa, as well as Maistre Jhan of Ferrara, in addition to his own music. In 1533 and 1534 he published two books of four voice madrigals in Venice; these were to become extremely popular, and indeed they were, in their 1540 reprint, one of the most widely printed and distributed music books of the first half of the 16th century. They sold so well that Adrian Willaert made arrangements of some of these works for single voice and lute in 1536. Verdelot published madrigals for five and six voices as well, with the collection for six voices appearing in 1541. Philippe Verdelot was associated at the Medici Court.

13/05/2008

Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era. The original meaning of "baroque" is "irregular pearl", a strikingly fitting characterization of the architecture of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its music. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. It is associated with composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The baroque period saw the development of diatonic tonality. During the period composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation; made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today. Read more

11/05/2008

Do you love singing?If so, do join us in Utrecht in the summer of 2009 for the international festival for amateur singers. The Europa Cantat festival takes place every three years, and next time it's in Utrecht, the Netherlands! From 17 to 26 July 2009 you and your choir or ensemble, or just you on your own, can take part in ateliers, meet people from all sorts of countries, enjoy singing with topconductors and listening to music: classical music, vocal jazz, showchoir, opera and musical. More than 3000 singers are expected to attend. Do make sure you're one of them!Repertoire will include the following:- oratoria- a daily Bach cantata- early Music from The Netherlands including Sweelinck- polychoral music from Italy by Gabrieli and Marenzio- latinamerican choral music

09/05/2008

The End of Early Music A Period Performer's History of Music for the Twenty-First CenturyBruce HaynesISBN13: 9780195189872Jun 2007

Its performing traditions lost to time, early music has become the subject of significant controversy across the world of classical music and presents numerous challenges for musicians, composers, and even listening audiences. The studies of instruments and notes on early manuscript pages may help to restore early music to its intended state, yet the real process is interpretive, taking place within performers themselves.This book is about historical performance practice in its broadest sense. A veteran of the early music movement and an experienced performer himself, Bruce Haynes begins by identifying the most common performing styles, using and comparing sound recordings from the past. To help musicians distinguish between Period and Romantic styles, he expertly engages with the most current and controversial topics in the field in defining the differences between them. Throughout, he presents many compelling arguments for using pre-Romantic values as inspiration to re-examine and correct Romantic assumptions about performance.This book also offers a fresh perspective on a broad spectrum of questions about music in history. From Werktreue and the Urtext imperative to formality in ritualized performances and authenticity as an industry standard, Haynes offers straightforward explanations of the most significant questions in the field. Two chapters compare Baroque expression through rhetoric and gestural phrasing to the Romantic concept of autobiography in notes. Throughout his fascinating discussions of descriptive and prescriptive musical notation, the Romantic interpretive conductor in early music, and the controversial practice of composing in Period style, Haynes argues that performances are more pleasing and convincing to contemporary performers and listeners not through the attempt to return to the past, but rather by endeavoring to revive as best we can the styles and techniques that originally produced the music.Part history, part critical reflection on the state of the authenticity movement, The End of Early Music describes a vision of the future that involves improvisation, rhetorical expression, and composition. This stimulating and compelling book will appeal to musicians and non-musicians alike.Reviews"'Early Music' (with its off-putting "scare-quotes") is dead; long live early music! Reading the mature reflections of one of the 'Early Music Movement's' important revolutionaries about the panorama of performing styles in today's musical world is both a pleasure and a challenge. Mr. Haynes's breadth and depth of learning and observation is admirable, but more important is his clear-minded yet passionate formulation of an artistic vision of creative musicianship for our time."--Stephen Stubbs, Northwest Center for Early Music Studies"From one of the brightest lights in the field of baroque music comes yet another indispensable book. Only Haynes, a performer of great sensitivity and dedication to the 'project' of historical performance, only Haynes, a scholar of alacrity and dynamism, only Haynes, who for over thirty years has never stopped interrogating what we are doing when we approach the past in performance, only Haynes could have written a brilliant book for early music in the new millennium. It is thoughtful, iconoclastic, tender, and honest. This is the new Quantz-obligatory reading for everyone who cares about early music."--Kate van Orden, performer on historical instruments and Professor, University of California, Berkeley"Haynes has made a series of subtle and important points for all listeners, musicians, all artists and potentially all art in fact, very well.... If you have anything but the most casual interest in music before 1800 and its most proper and effective performance, then this readable and well-argued book, which has a great balance of technical and non-technical illustrations for the practicing musician and listener alike, should not be ignored. Thoroughly recommended."--Mark Sealey, Classical NetAbout the Author(s): Recently retired as a performer, Bruce Haynes worked for many years in Holland. He introduced the hautboy into the Dutch music curriculum, teaching at the Royal Conservatory. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal. He has published widely on the history of the oboe and performing pitch standards.Link

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Miserere by Gregorio Allegri (also called "Miserere mei, Deus") is a setting of Psalm 51 (50) composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. It was the last of twelve falsobordone Miserere settings composed and chanted at the service since 1514 and the most popular: at some point, it became forbidden to transcribe the music and it was only allowed to be performed at those particular services, adding to the mystery surrounding it. Writing it down or performing it elsewhere was punishable by excommunication. The setting that escaped from the Vatican is actually a conflation of verses set by Gregorio Allegri around 1638 and Tommaso Bai (1650 - 1718, also spelled "Baj") in 1714.

The Miserere is written for two choirs, one of five and one of four voices. One of the choirs sings a simple version of the original Miserere chant; the other, spatially separated, sings an ornamented "commentary" on this. Many have cited this work as an example of the stile antico or prima pratica. However, its constant use of the dominant seventh chord and its emphasis on polychoral techniques certainly put it out of the range of prima pratica. A more accurate comparison would be to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli.

Although there were a handful of supposed transcriptions in various royal courts in Europe, none of them succeeded in capturing the beauty of the Miserere as performed annually in the Sistine Chapel. According to the popular story (backed up by family letters), the fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome, when he first heard the piece during the Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, returning to the Chapel that Friday to make minor corrections. Some time during his travels, he met the British historian Dr Charles Burney, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. Once published, the ban was lifted and Allegri's Miserere has since become one of the most popular a cappella choral works now performed. The work was also transcribed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1831 and Franz Liszt, and various other 18th and 19th century sources survive.

Mozart was summoned to Rome by the Pope, only instead of excommunicating the boy the Pope showered praises on him for his feat of musical genius.

Burney's edition did not include the ornamentation or "imbellimenti" that made the work famous. The original ornamentations were Renaissance techniques that preceded the composition itself, and it was these techniques that were closely guarded by the Vatican. Few written sources (not even Burney's) showed the ornamentation, and it was this that created the legend of the work's mystery. However, the Roman priest Pietro Alfieri published in 1840 an edition with the intent of preserving the performance practice of the Sistine choir in the Allegri and Bai compositions, including ornamentation.

The piece as it is sung today, with a high treble C, is inauthentic, and is the result of an error in the first edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music of 1880, in an article on ornamentation by the musicologist William Smith Rockstro. In it, he wrote out the first half of the verse twice, but transposed the second half up a fourth (as recorded in Felix Mendelssohn's transription). As a result the bass part leaps from F sharp to C, a progression (known as a tritone) and forbidden by the rules of counterpoint at the time when Allegri was working. Sir Ivor Atkins, then choirmaster of Worcester Cathedral, copied the Rockstro verse from Grove's for his English language edition of 1951, and liked what he heard.

Authentic editions have been produced in the last few years using Alfieri's account of 1840, original Vatican source material and other manuscripts, but most modern listeners know only the garbled 20th century version which remains highly popular with conductors.

The Miserere is one of the most often-recorded examples of late Renaissance music, although it was actually written during the chronological confines of the Baroque era. In this regard it is representative of the music of the Roman School of composers, who were stylistically conservative.

Over the years many visitors to the Vatican during Holy Week have been disappointed if there was not an Allegri Service on their day. The Miserere is regularly performed on Ash Wednesday in English cathedrals.

Arguably the most famous recording of Allegri's Miserere was that made in March 1963 by the all-male Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conducted by Sir David Willcocks, which featured the then-treble Roy Goodman. (This recording of the Miserere was originally part of an LP recording entitled "Evensong for Ash Wednesday"). The Tallis Scholars are an example of a group which uses a female soprano for the high solo.

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